ABSTRACT
This chapter is an introduction to further research carried out on a representative sample of Polish cities and on the example of selected CEE countries. The first part of the chapter presents the situation of the cities functioning in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Next, reference is made to the number, territorial distribution and socioeconomic conditions of development of Polish cities in which extensive survey research was carried out. This chapter identifies the key issues and challenges of smart cities in the studied region covering a group of emerging or developing economies.
